Month: September 2015

Today’s post is all about eating gluten free in Nashville, so I’ll be showcasing the edible highlights of my recent trip! Let’s start with breakfast, the most important meal of the day. On Sunday morning, breakfast took place around 9am at the Frothy Monkey on 12th Avenue. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, there are a few locations of this awesome spot, and I would highly recommend any if you live in the area or are visiting.

My adventures in Nashville on Saturday were awesome, from sightseeing in Centennial Park, Vanderbilt University, and Music Row to eating a delicious gluten free dinner at AMOT Eatery. But my visit wasn’t over yet. On Sunday, my friend Lauren and I had a morning of food, flowers and fun in Nashville before my flight back. We kicked things off with breakfast around 9am at the Frothy Monkey, a coffee shop/restaurant/bar hybrid that wouldn’t be out of place in Brooklyn or Berkeley (or any other classic hipsterville, take your pick!) There are a few outposts of the Frothy Monkey, one near Music Row on 5th Avenue that we had seen Saturday, one on 12th Avenue, a bit further out from downtown Nashville, and one in the suburb of Franklin. We decided to head to the Frothy Monkey on 12th Avenue, thinking it might be a little less crowded than the one on 5th Avenue. It may have been, but it was plenty full, with a line out the door!

Happy Monday, everyone! I’m back from a whirlwind weekend of adventures in Nashville, the third round in my post bar travels. I’ve gone from England to California to Tennessee, this time visiting my dear friend Lauren who moved to the area last year. We grew up together in Connecticut, but I hadn’t seen her since she moved, so I was really looking forward to this weekend. We did so much in a short time, squeezing visits to Centennial Park, Vanderbilt University, Music City, and a few great restaurants into our Saturday, and a wonderful brunch and visit to Cheekwood on Sunday before I headed home.

As a follow-up to my post on packing tips for a long trip, I’m kicking off this weekend with five great tips for carry-on packing. These techniques can be used to pack for a trip of any length. I tend to stick with just a carry-on and a backpack or purse if my trip will last less than one week. In fact, I only brought a carry-on and a backpack for my recent trip to California, and that was 10 days! Even if you’re the type of packer who likes to prepare for all contingencies, you’ll find these five tips useful for making the most of limited space.

My round of trips recently got me to thinking about why I don’t wear makeup. As in, I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve put anything other than chapstick on my face in the last year on one hand. When I went to pack my suitcase for England, it didn’t even occur to me to put any makeup in until a friend floated that I might want some in the event I went out to really nice restaurants in London. So I threw in a mascara (still in the packaging), some powder, and lip gloss. Everything came back unused because I was happy with my Burt’s Bees chapstick. Crazy, right?

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I’m sharing my eats from Saturday, when I fueled up with a post-run brunch at home before heading out to spend the rest of the day at my best friend’s baby shower! The baby shower eats and treats were wonderful, and I was so grateful to the grandma-to-be for really making it special. First off, though, brunch after a 6-mile run.

I wanted to make something special for my best friend’s baby shower this past weekend. Her mom took care of most of the food, and since it was an afternoon event, the plan was to have appetizer-style bites – fruit, veggies, cheese, cocktail shrimp, little phyllo pastries, mini hot dogs, that sort of thing. There was also a beautiful bunny rabbit cake, along with baby-themed cookies. Since I was tasked with bringing some other sweet treats to share, I decided to make a dozen cupcakes and a dozen muffins.

Welcome to a late September edition of Run. Eat. Listen. Watch. Read. It’s pretty much a Link Love to gather up everything that’s caught my eye since the first and second rounds back in August, featuring everything from running tips to recipes and movies to music. Read on, and you might get hooked on one of these too!

As promised in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s posts, here comes a decadent, delectable recipe for Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Bars! One of the tougher aspects of gluten free baking is that I can never be absolutely sure that the treats I bake taste as good as what most people consider ‘the real thing’. I used to be able to bring treats somewhere and have people tell me they were good before they knew I was gluten free, but now pretty much everywhere I’d bring any food, everyone knows, whether family or friends. So when I set out to make something special for my dad’s birthday this year, I used my brother as an honest taste-tester so I could be absolutely sure that what I cooked up was fit for the occasion.